Sorry to all our faithful readers for the lack of regular posts. Sometimes I don't know where the time goes. Last week passed so quickly, I must have checked my calendar three times to make sure it was Friday. It was also one of those weeks where nothing seemed to work out, which might have explained my extreme frustration with DHL. I apologize for the grumpy venting posts regarding our camera. I was so excited to have it back, and so frustrated to have it be so close, but still so far away.
Anyway, I've managed to get past all the frustration, mostly because we had a busy weekend, and because we're hoping that someone will bring it with them when they come to visit. I won't tell you who it is because it's not for sure yet, but we're pretty excited anyway.
Saturday we went out to Ikea again, to pick up some more necessities. We rented a car this time, which made it much easier to get everything home, but much harder to not get completly stressed out driving there. We don't actually have a road map of Paris, so although the written driving directions I'd copied off the Ikea site were somewhat useful, they weren't too helpful when we got lost. Erik will tell you that we're never renting a car again, but that's a whole other story....
We finished off our Saturday by buying an oven. We were feeling quite pleased with ourselves for having found a good deal on a fairly large table top oven. It was the last one in the store, and we walked out with the floor model. Wouldn't you know it, but of course it doesn't work. So we have a really pretty oven sitting on our really pretty new Ikea oven stand, but it's not functional.
But that's not why I'm writing. Things started looking up on Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I decided I was going to make pancakes for breakfast despite the fact that I didn't have white flour, a pancake flipper, or maple syrup. The results were surprisingly tasty. Whole wheat flour pancakes, flipped with by a knife and a wooden spoon, and a whole lot of butter. Butter makes everything taste good. And because we didn't have syrup, I melted some more butter with brown sugar and creme fraiche to make a sort of caramel. Quite tasty.
Another failed trip to the gym meant I had time to meet with Janna, a friend of my cousins, who is here going to school. We had a nice time wandering around our new neighbourhood, and found a cute little cafe for lunch, just in time, because it started to pour as soon as we were inside.
After lunch we met up with some other friends at the Louvre. It was the first Sunday of the month, which means that many museums in the city are free. And crowded. We were a little bit late getting there, and the girls had already gone in, so we stood in a line that stretched almost all the way around the pyramid. It actually moved quite quickly, and I ran into someone that I worked with at Camp U of T, which made the time pass even faster.
Once inside, having found Zoe, Hillary and Aurelie, we wandered through the Richelieu wing, specifically the Dutch artists, I think. Fairly interesting, although there seemed to be a lot of paintings of dead animals. We did see the two Vermeer paintings, which were quite impressive. I loved the Astrologue. The detail is unbelievable. Anyway, Hillary wanted to see Napoleons Apartments, so we headed down there on our way out.
They were spectacular! The first room that we walked into was his bedroom. An enormous canopy bed, with ostrich feathers on the canopy, and layers of blue velvet. The bed was surrounded by elaborate chairs (for his servants?), and was other wise empty, except for some elegant window treatments. After passing through the rooms displaying the china and silverware (quite elaborate and beautiful. One of the silver teapots had a little basket thing attached to the spout that I thought was interesting. To catch drips?), we came to the dining room. It was MAGNIFICENT!!! A Huge table in the middle of the most ornately decorated room I have ever seen. The ceiling was painted, as well as a large portion of the wall at one end in fantastic murals, and the mouldings were huge and gold! Not to mention the three enormous chandeliers that Aurelie pointed out must have been fun to light when they were actually candles. The room was breathtaking. From there we moved through some sitting rooms, one with interesting three-person chairs, and enormous portraits of Napoleon and his wife. Unfortunately we weren't able to go much farther as it was closing time, and if there's one thing they do well here (except for bread, and wine, and food, and cheese...) it's get people out of places at closing time. They heard you out, and form human barriers. Zoe had to show her coat check stub to be allowed to cross the lobby to get her coat. We had to wait outside. I was surprised there weren't any dogs!! We will definetly have to go back. This was only my second time at the Louvre, and until we got to the apartments, I always feel like I don't really know enough about art (I don't).
Of course any afternoon at the museum isn't complete without a stop for a cafe, or a hot chocolate. We headed to a cute little bakery/cafe in the Marais, and then Erik and I decided to walk home. It was a bit of a hike, but as always, an adventure.
There you go. Another Sunday in Paris.
